The Reaper's Messenger
by Duriel von Abaddon
Summary: If a soldier is killed in the line of duty, a Marine is sent out to their family to inform them, this burden now falls on a less than willing Marine named Andrew Wood. On Earth, a week after the Covenant landed in New Mombassa FINISHED
1. Intro

When I say tragedy, I don't mean tragedy as in disaster. I mean it by the definition of Greek Tragedy.

The following definition was taken from this site: was noted in the discussion of the _Iliad_, the word "tragedy" refers primarily to tragic drama: a literary composition written to be performed by actors in which a central character called a tragic protagonist or hero suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental and therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected with the hero's actions. Tragedy stresses the vulnerability of human beings whose suffering is brought on by a combination of human and divine actions, but is generally undeserved with regard to its harshness. This genre, however, is not totally pessimistic in its outlook. Although many tragedies end in misery for the characters, there are also tragedies in which a satisfactory solution of the tragic situation is attained."

I find this topic to be of great interest, and I believe that if more writers could incorporate a human aspect into their writing, this site would be much richer in content. It would give people something to think about rather than just gratuitous violence that I see in many of these stories. My goal is to write a good story, to even those who know nothing about the Halo universe. I challenge others to do the same.


	2. Chapter 1

It was around 30 degrees out. Summer in Toronto, Canada. Black dress shoes clapped against the hot concrete, up the stairs. A white glove knocked three times against the wooden door.

Andrew waited for a few seconds in front of the door with a paper in his hand.

"Hello?" A woman answered the door. She looked about 50 some.

"Are you Ms. Collinger?" Andrew asked.

"Yes, are you from the Marines?"

"Ma'am, the United Nations Space Command regrets to inform you that your son, Richard s. Collinger was killed in the line of duty, on an operation that was essential to winning the war." Andrew read from the paper.

Then as ordered handed the woman a brown envelope, containing her sons medals, a death certificate, and number of other 'official papers'. He told her when and where her son's uniform could be collected. Then apologized that it could not be delivered due to the troops being spread to thin.

With that, he turned, walked back to his car, got in, and drove off.

It was only a short drive back to the base, the parents probably moved close to it so they could be near their son. Right, he probably wasn't even stationed there once.

"Poor bastard's ship got shredded by a Covenant Cruiser twice its size." Andrew thought to himself.

He took his hat off and placed it on the seat beside him. It was too hot today. He was going to shave his head again. It's getting awkward. Well, to him at least, used to being almost bald. He pulled into the base's parking lot. Taking the keys out, putting them in his pocket, he got out of the car.

The heat must have been a distraction, because he locked his hat in the car, and had to fiddle around with the keys for another few minutes to get it back.

The gatekeeper knew Andrew pretty well, and let him in without asking for his ID.

Andrew walked over to the door and it slid open automatically to let him in.

"Hey Andy"

"Hey Cal" Andrew said as he passed one of the Marines he used to be partners with.

He stepped into the elevator, hit 4 and waited. The door slid open and he walked into the maze of cubicles and offices in charge of recruiting and, well, telling people their loved ones are dead. He pushed open the door to a rather large office at the back corner.

"HEY! Major,"

"Lieutenant Wood, what do you need?" Major Gordon Redward responded.

"A transfer, anywhere but here Sir," Andrew responded while putting his gloves in his shirt pocket, and clipping his hat to his belt.

"And why's that?"

"Because frankly, Sir, I don't like telling people their kids are dead. I'm not good at it, and personally I don't want to be good at it, I don't want to get de-sensitized to death. Okay, I've seen guys like that at they aren't me. Nor will they be."

Redward stood up.

"Lieutenant, I deal with this everyday, I run this department. I never got de-sensitized to it, and I doubt I ever will, it's hard at first, but think about it. The only other option is to ship you out to the front line, and with the Covenant civil war, the Covenant ships carrying contained Flood, that's basically a death sentence."

"Sir I truly believe I can serve the UNSC better fighting the enemy, than I can being the bearer of bad news."

"Okay, you seem sure enough of this, come back to me in a month, if you still can't do it. I'll transfer you, but Wood, I like you, you're a good Marine, I don't want to send you out to die in space."

Andrew nodded and walked out of the office, he was meeting a friend for lunch in the cafeteria.

**Aboard UNSC Battlecruiser Cole:**

"Commander, I'm reading a Covenant Destroyer approaching off the rear, its moving slow, using stealth tactics, I can't track it to well. Recommend a quiet resistance." The tactical officer suggested.

"Alright, station troops around all possible boarding zones, don't let them know we're ready for them, power up the main cannon, and all secondary weaponry, make it look like we're running a munitions test. We're going to catch them off guard.

"Sergeant you're needed to help guard Docking Bay B-7447." A marine said to Sergeant Chase Roberts.

"Thanks, I'm on my way."

He walked into the lift that connects directly to the engineering bay, where he was. Thankfully he was already prepared to fight, the ship had been on high alert for about a week, and he was damned happy to get this over with.

The lift stopped on the docking bay. The airlock.

"Sir, we're expecting a huge covenant boarding party, this is the biggest possible boarding zone."

"Roger, then let's take our places,"

**On the Bridge:**

"Commander, the Covenant Ship is powering up its weapons! It knows we saw it, they're going to blow out the main docking bay, they know we have guys there, they want to clear it first."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A woman shuffled around her house early in the morning. Well, it was about eleven AM but she had only woken up a half an hour ago. Today was a bit more comfortable it terms of weather. The last day had been scorching hot, but it had finally rained during the night, and that made today a bit better. Plus the smell of rain always adds to a day's atmosphere.

The woman walked over to the coffee maker and drew back the mug. In the living room was her son, about seven months old, playing on a place carpet. She sat down with her coffee and watched him.

Andrew fixed his tie in the mirror, then pulled his black shoes on. He grabbed his keys and jacket, then decided against it and put his jacket back.

"Oh hell," he went back again to get his jacket. In fear it might get colder today.

"I'll just leave it in the car if I don't need it," he said to himself.

He pushed out the door of his apartment and started down the stairs, saying 'hi' to a few people he passed, a lot of them seemed happy to have a Marine living in their co-op.

"Yeah, I ain't so great," he thought to himself.

The building had an elevator but he decided to always go up and down the stairs, as subtle exercise. Not that he wasn't in shape.

Andrew woke up early this morning to he could stop off at the base's barber before going to work. He pushed the steel bar on the door and left the building. Glad to see the weather was cooler.

He stuck the keys in the door of his car, opened the door and got it. It was early so he probably beat the morning rush hour.

Andrew pulled out of his building's parking lot, and started on the short drive to work. It was short, but he still needed a car to do it, and it was a lot slower in traffic.

He flicked on the radio, bad music, more bad music, talk radio that he'd rather not hear, infomercials, bad music, patriotic propaganda, blah. He turned it off.

Uh, here it is, he drives past a funeral home and sees a funeral in progress, some people are dressed in Military uniform,

"I wonder if it was anyone I even knew, maybe in training," he wondered. Then shook the thought away and continued driving.

A few minutes past, a few cars, not many. He slowed down so the gatekeeper guy could let him in, it was a different person this time around, so he had to show ID, Andrew would later learn that his gatekeeper was sent off to the Frontline.

Andrew walked into the Marine barbershop

Sat down on the chair, no one else was there, he picked up a news paper, the guy knew what he wanted, because Andrew was in there a lot, trying to keep his hair as short as possible. It was great for the Marines, they just had to pay a bit of a tip. The corps pays the barber's salary. He looked through all the advertisements encouraging youth to enlist, at the few pictures from New Mombassa. Some rumors about the Covenant planning to land in other places on Earth.

Before he knew it the barber was done, he guessed maybe his hair wasn't as long as he thought it was.

He tipped the Marine and went off into the main building of the base. Greeting the usual people. Today they were doing some maintenance on the elevator he uses, the one closest to the entrance. So he had to make a small detour around the halls.

Andrew never really went through these halls, so that's why he never noticed the TV up in the corner constantly tuned to a news station. He stopped for a few seconds to see what was happening. It showed Marine's pushing the Covenant out of New Mombassa, this is true, the Marines actually did win there, well, before the Assault Carrier blew up the whole damned city by performing a slip space jump in it. The battle was now being fought in space. Mostly, there was some Covenant on Earth. But the media was instructed to make the situation look as hopeful as possible.

They were interviewing a man who said that they had reason to believe that the Covenant is planning a massive strike against Earth. That's not too good for morale.

Andrew pulled himself away from the TV. He already knew more than any civilian would until the war was over, probably.

**UNSC Observation Post, Atlantic Ocean:**

"The fleet seems to be pulling back. Either we're pushing them back, or their regrouping for an even bigger attack. Either way their coming back." Erin Bryant reported.

"Keep your eyes peeled for any high energy signatures, re enforcement's, the usual," The Navy Commander said.

Andrew's car pulled up beside a medium sized suburban house. It had every stereotype possible, perfect lawn, white walls, flowers around the building itself. You name it.

He got out of his car and walked across the path towards the house.

The woman heard three knocks on the door, put her coffee down on the ground, then picked it up again and placed it on the table so the kid didn't nock it over and burn himself or something. She walked towards the door and opened it.

A woman came to the door,

"Excuse me, are you Mrs. Roberts,"

"Chase Roberts is my husband, I kept my name though, why, is he okay?"

"Ma'am, the United Nations Space Command regrets to inform you that your Husband, Sergeant Chase Roberts was killed in the line of duty, on an operation that was essential to winning the war."

The woman closed the door without a word. Andrew stood for about a minute to see if she would come back so he could give her the papers in person. She didn't so he left them on her porch leaning against the door in the brown envelope.

He turned and began walking to his car.

"Shit," Andrew said under his breath as he realized he locked the keys in the car. He began reaching for his phone when he felt an extremely sharp pain in his lower back, on the right side. He looked at his car to see a hole bored into the side of it, then he placed his hand on his back, it was cold and wet, he pulled his hand back to see it was covered in blood. Terrified and confused Andrew looked back at the woman only to see her turn the gun on herself.

He felt weak, he scrambled for his phone but couldn't hold onto it as he fell down onto the ground and began bleeding onto the sidewalk. Looking around for anyone who could help him, he saw no one on the empty suburban street, he tried calling out for help but couldn't get the words out. He tried putting pressure on the exit wound, but was too weak to hold it there, he could feel himself slipping away, and just as quickly as the bullet entered him, everything went black.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Erin Bryant walked through the echoing corridors of the Underwater Observation Post. Well most of it was underwater. There was a small section above water where some censor equipment, telescopes, and a docking pad were.

"Lieutenant I-"

"Don't tell it to me Corporal, I can't to anything about it," Erin said as a crewman approached her with sensor readings.

She wasn't taking anymore assignments from this post. Her tour here was done and she was going back to Toronto.

She pushed open a door,

"Commander," She said while putting a few papers on the man's desk.

"This is the transferring paperwork I asked for?"

Erin nodded.

"Alright, take a seat, I'll get this processed," the Commander said as he started clicking and typing away at his computer. It looked rather funny to see the old man fiddling around with the machine, from behind the machine. Because one could not see what was on the screen and the Commander seemed to have a habit of making odd expressions when concentrating.

Erin had been posted at this place for just over a year. She hadn't even been ashore for that time, the soldiers here lived in constant fear that a Covenant ship would somehow find the station and bomb it. That fear had been at the back of everyone's head for as long as Erin knew, but ever since the Covenant found Earth and had the audacity to set they're hoofs on its soil, that fear was on everyone's mind non-stop.

"Alright Erin, your data has been transferred, now get to the surface, the ships' leaving soon."

The two stood up and saluted each other.

**Aboard Orbital Defence Station Gehenna's Wing 2:**

The station's MAC gun recoiled after spiting another round into space, blasting a Damaged Covenant cruiser to bits.

"That's one more down sir," the Officer manning the gun reported in.

"Admiral! Enemy Cruiser's have broken the barrier, their in direct route to Earth, one has already penetrated the Atmosphere," The tactical Officer reported.

"Private," The Admiral said to a Marine working on a Communications console.

"Wire a message to ALL UNSC Command centers on Earth. We have a broken link."

"Admiral, the Cruiser just destroyed an underwater observation post!" the Tactical Officer reported.

**Earth, above the Atlantic Ocean:**

The ship flew at top speed, in its attempt to outrun the shock wave generated when the Station exploded. The Marine's in the ship stared out the window in terror as debris skipped across the ocean's surface like giant molten stones.

Erin glanced out the window, now obviously she's seen Covenant Battle Cruisers before, on screens and holograms, but NEVER in real life. This thing was truly a monster. It filled up the whole sky, and lit it up with its plasma weapons and its massive engines, well, if you can call them that, there were no obvious engine exhaust points on it. It was like a big blue teardrop with a claw hooking under it and almost touching the larger back area. It pushed water out of the way via it's anti gravity system. There was a gold tint in the sky, Erin thought she knew what this was, she was right. A UNSC Battlecruiser jumped through the clouds, swooping down and blasting the enemy ship. It looked like it did a great deal of damage to the shields of the Covenant cruiser. The teardrop was pushed down slightly by the assault of the brown block like UNSC ship. This was the most amazing site any Marine has probably ever seen. Two HUGE starships, engaging in combat on a planet, not in orbit, not in the atmosphere but only a few hundred meters from the surface. The UNSC ship was extremely agile for something that big. The even bigger destroyers couldn't move like that, this one was a Battlecruiser. It was meant to be able to torment the much larger Covenant Battle cruisers, in a fight between the Covenant and Human starships, the Humans were almost always outgunned, outnumbered, and out defended, if you can say that.

The UNSC Battlecruiser shot straight up, curved a bit in the air, and slammed its engines forcing it down again, launching a myriad of weapons into the enemy ship. Then something unexpected happened, as the UNSC vessel was pulling up it's right hand rear engine clipped the nose of the Covenant ship. Brown metal was sent flying in all directions, and the engine began to absorb its own debris. A wave of shock rippled throughout the Marines onboard the ship speeding away from the destroyed installation.

The UNSC ship tried its hardest to move upward again, it was probably trying to breach the atmosphere, because if it stayed in an area with gravity, the lack of that engine would have it dragged into the ocean. The ships exterior plating began flaking off, and the damaged engine looked as though it was only hanging on by a thread. Boom. The engine exploded at its joining point, flew off the ship and extreme speeds and slammed into the Covenant Battlecruiser. Lighting up the sky even more. Now the Marines in Erin's ship were screaming, gasping, and all around terrified. The air was alive with the hum of engines as the burning behemoth roared over the tiny transport. Every last Marine on board raced to the other side of the ship to try and look out the window.

**Toronto:**

"Sir, reports are coming in from New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland, it seems that the Covenant Battlecruiser that penetrated the OBC just shot down a UNSC Battlecruiser just a few miles off shore. AFTER destroying an underwater observation post.

"God damnit, I don't like where this is going," Major Gordon Redward muttered.

"Major, the Cruiser is headed DIRECTLY towards the Megacity, we're going to need all the Marines that we have, this could get very nasty. ONI won't let the OBC give us anymore ships after that one was shot down. We're on our own."

A nurse walked into a brightly lit hospital room, he heard the TV going as army boots clapped along the tiled floor. Inside was a soldier packing a bag, he looked decently tall, had dark skin, probably mixed race, and extremely short hair. The nurse looked at his clipboard for the man's name.

"Lieutenant Wood, the transport is here,"

Andrew nodded as he put his hand on his back and winced a bit.

He walked out of the room.

"Wood, good to see you in one piece,"

"Thank God for neighborhood watch I guess," Andrew said lightly. In reference to the person who called the Police after hearing shots.

The Major and the Lieutenant stepped into an elevator.

"The Doctors say you have a strong will, normally they don't let patients out a week after a gunshot wound like yours, but you know, their being forced to. I hope you aren't too tired." Major Redward said to the very quiet Andrew before the elevator doors slid open revealing the hospital rooftop.

The two Officers walked out of the elevator and towards the ramp leading to the transport.

Erin Bryant and the transport Pilot walked down the ramp to meet the two Marines coming towards it (the ramp). The four Soldiers saluted each other,

"First Lieutenant Erin Bryant, this is AFC (Airman First Class) Kevin Walker. He will be with us the entire operation." Erin said as she introduced herself and the Pilot to the other two Marines.

"Major Gordon Redward,"

"Second Lieutenant Andrew Wood,"

Major Redward wouldn't be coming along with them for this Operation. He was needed back at HQ.

"Heard you were a Reaper," Erin said to Andrew as the door to the transport sealed shut.

"I am a Reaper Ma'am," Andrew said to the Officer.

"No Ma'am, I only outrank you by one rank, and lets both admit it, there's more trust between Marine's when we're on a first name basis,"

Andrew nodded and smiled. He was fine with that. This person looked like a competent Soldier, Andrew could tell that about people right off the bat usually.

The transport rumbled off the platform, and the Marine's on board all got that light feeling you get when hovering.

I can tell, there's something bothering her in the back of her mind… 

Andrew thought to himself.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Erin and Andrew walked out of the transport, Andrew with one hand over his forehead to block out the sun.

"Commander Solomon," a man walked up to the Marines coming out of the transport. He shakes hands with Andrew and Erin,

The two introduce themselves.

"What do we have Commander?" Erin asked over the roar of the transport engines and the mess of other mechanized noise pollutants.

Andrew stood back from the Commander with the other Marines; he had barely said anything since he had been shot.

"We're expecting the first wave of Phantoms to do a fly by here. Our job is plain and simple, kill 'em all. We can't let them get to the cities core, the MAC cannon in the middle of the city will try and damage the cruiser to the point that it retreats, then we can take it out in space, where it wont take half the city with it.

Erin was about to say something but waited until a patrol of Longswords screamed past. The sounds of their engines echoed for a good two minutes. Aggravating the Lieutenant.

"What do you want us to do?" She finally asked, referring to the group of Marines standing behind her.

"Artillery. Make sure it stays alive, they're our best bet at removing those phantoms. The Covenant will try to land within their blind spot and take them out by killing the Marines manning them, then likely they will turn them against our Longswords, OR, detonate the shells, and we don't want that. If –" The Marines looked up to the sky,

"Fucking Hell, they're early…"

The Artillery commander swung his hand forward while screaming some orders. Then the AAA guns let loose, they began blasting furiously at the sky, trying to destroy the Elite drop pods before they hit the ground, they did a good job, but the sheer number of the Elite's was too many.

"Commander, the Civilians?" Andrew said spinning Solomon around by his shoulder,

"Evacuated."

Andrew nodded. And prayed Solomon wasn't just saying that because he knew that's what Andrew wanted to hear.

The Marines were stationed on a large building, not high at all, maybe 20 floors, but that was in the central column, the majority of the Marines were on the extremely broad section of the building, reminiscent of the Pentagon building. But it was circular, and was solid; it didn't have any gaps, just a solid roof.

Scorpion tanks, Warthogs, and all kinds of war machines scurried around below.

"PHANTOMS!" one of the spotters yelled. The marines started to point their artillery guns lower. One got there before the others and fired off a shell directly into the front of a phantom, the beast exploded into a billion pieces in the air, the burning wreck slammed into the ground. It was a lucky shot.

The ships flew over the Marines, letting loose a wave of Grunts and Jackals, some Elites.

Andrew placed his battle rifle level to his eyes after tossing a frag out. He squeezed the hair trigger gently, and watched as three shots slammed into a Grunt's face, Andrew decided it'd be best to switch to single shot to conserve ammo, he had killer aim too, so it's not like it would hurt.

The elevator door opened to the seventh floor balcony of the tower in the middle of the structure. The balcony wrapped around the entire structure. Allowing snipers on all sides. Erin and several other Marines burst out, and began setting up spotting posts and Sniper rifles. Erin motioned for a spotter to be positioned beside her. The spotters could direct air strikes, artillery, and snipers. They were also highly trained Snipers, so that if their partner was killed they could take over.

Erin pulled back the bolt on the side of her rifle and readied it to take out some Covenant bastards.

A Grunt helplessly waddled into her Crosshairs.

The Marines below heard the crack of the Sniper rifles beginning to level the Covvie forces. They all felt a little calmer inside, with a sniper, especially a lot of them, you were a lot safer, that is, if they're on your side.

"Uh oh, Phantoms back!" Someone said over the intercom that connected the Marines.

The last few jackals and Grunts fell, well, the ones that weren't hiding.

Andrew raced away from his position out in the open. To behind a steel barricade, with a dozen or so Marines behind it as well. He propped himself up on the sandbags on the inside, (the sandbags are placed on the inside rather than on the outside because the Covenant plasma bolts get so hot that they can melt through the metal, and if they do they can be stopped by the sandbags. It's like snuffing a fire with dirt.)

Andrew reloaded his Battle Rifle. He had seen combat before, and he knew all to well what was coming next. He could hear plasma artillery from Wraith tanks all around him; the fucking bastards had landed. He looked to the sky, towering above the city was a Covenant Battle Cruiser, he could see the bit of damage the UNSC Battle Cruiser had done to it. But there wasn't much. Andrew decided to not look back unless he needed to, its not good for the morale to see something like that, and know that its hostile.

"PHANTOMS HAVE UNLOADED!" The Marines hear in their earpieces.

Andrew dropped his rifle and grabbed a hold of the turret that was aiming at the Elites advancing towards them. He opened up.

The flashes coming from the muzzle of the turret were almost blinding to the Aliens.

"What's that?" Erin asked her observer, then proceeding to give the directions.

The spotter looked through their advanced binoculars. It was alive whatever it –

"Shoot it," the spotter said.

Without questioning the person of a lower rank, without even saying a word, Erin responded with a crack of the Rifle.

Andrew heard a crack, then the sound of a bullet hitting concrete behind him, he spun around leaving the turret unmanned for a moment, to see a cloud of purple blood vanish into the air and an Elite drop out of nowhere and land on the ground. About three seconds later blood began pouring liberally from its back, where the shot had exited. The bastard. A cloaked Elite.

Andrew looked through his binoculars, he could see Erin up in the Sniper perch, and she was aiming in his direction, the muzzle of her rifle smoking. He would have to thank her later.

Andrew got back on his turret, and began blasting away at the Elites. Then for some odd reason he glanced to the other side of the Battlefield, there were six Marines, one of them being Commander Solomon, they weren't doing so well. And their turret was damaged. Andrew looked to his left. This barricade has three turrets! He pulls out one of the turrets. Then motions to three Marine's,

Erin could see Andrew making a run for Solomon's position, with three Marines' and a turret. He was attracting a lot of attention from the Elites, she decided to cover him.

Andrew could feel the ground rumbling from the Artillery, turrets, weapons in general, Hunters. Hunters! It seemed to take forever to get there but he did it, with all three Marines.

"COMMANDER! GET ME A LINKUP TO LIEUTENANT BRYANT!" Andrew screamed to Solomon over the deafening racket of combat.

The commander nodded then motioned to the Marine in control of the radio.

"Erin you there?" Andrew said over the radio.

"Lieutenant!" the spotter said to Erin while they motioned to the direct line radio.

Erin tried to listen to the radio, instead of the Battle.

"_Erin we have Hunters, I'm going to deflect their shields with suppression fire from my turret, you need to cap them, are we good?" _Andrew said trough the radio.

Erin acknowledged him by giving the thumbs up from the sniper perch. She was kind of interested that they were on a first name basis when they had only met about an hour ago. Yet she was perfectly comfortable with it.

Andrew got up to fire the turret, but a sudden sharp pain forced him down again behind the barricades. He held his side, where the exit wound was.

"_Andrew? Are you hit?" _

Andrew could hear Erin's voice through the radio.

"I'm fine!" Andrew yelled in order for the sound to get through the radio over the noise of the battle, and he wasn't close enough to the radio.

Andrew let loose on a Hunter, the monster's shield instinctively moved to intercept the shots, but the alien under-estimated the strength of the bullets. These turrets were relatively new, and they kicked ass.

The Hunter's shield went up, exposing its orange belly; Erin took the initiative to fire the first and last shot.

The bullet entered from the side, almost tearing the beast in half. Andrew smiled, the plan works. He was caught off guard.

Solomon had just tossed a Grenade out to clear an Elite and some Grunts. Andrew looked back to see a Hunter powering up his Fuel Rod Cannon, then looked back to see Solomon's hand moving down to pick up his rifle again to finish the Elite off. It seemed to happen in slow motion, the green streak tore through the air, Andrew, who was about seven meters away, could even feel the heat. Solomon's rifle was torn apart by the blast, then his head soon followed suit.

A spray of red defiled the air behind Solomon's body. The decapitated Commander landed on the ground sprawled out.

Andrew opened up again; he got the Hunter from the side, as it was lurching forward. The beast was literally torn apart by the bullets.

A roaring sound suddenly shattered all other sounds in the area. UNSC and Covenant alike, they all looked into the sky, the Longswords were back. They released their cargo. Not all of it, which would be overkill, and also have some unintended effects on the friendly combatants, just the right amount to level the playing field a bit. The Marine's were sorely outnumbered, and their numbers were steadily falling. Orange flames engulfed the most Covenant occupied areas of the mile long building roof. It was a beautiful site to see. The enemy slaughtered so efficiently. But now there were massive holes punched into the concrete and steel roof. And the Marines wondered how long the building would stay up.

Another roaring sound, the Marines vision changed to witness the Pelicans dropping re enforcement's, Warthogs, and Scorpion tanks. The Covenant forces began to retreat, or regroup. Andrew wouldn't let them. He hated them, because of them he had been forced to tell all those people that they would never see their loved ones again. Now he was ensuring that the Covenant would get the same damned message.

"_Command is sending a BattleCruiser!_" The Marine's heard in their helmets.

"My God! We're going to win!" Andrew yelled while firing his turret.

"PHANTOMS BACK!"

Suddenly an Elite drop pod landed a few meters behind Andrew. It burst open and a Gold Elite wielding a plasma sword leaped out.

It swiped through a Marine instantly upon 'unsheathing'. Andrew knew his turret was nearly out of ammo, and was seriously damaged, he let it go. Andrew looked around for a weapon; he had left his rifle at the post where he got the turret. Fuck. He could think of only one thing to do, because of his close proximity to the edge of the structure, he ran at the Elite. The alien slashed at Andrew's neck. Andrew fell deliberately on his back, raising one foot and kicking the Elite in the stomach. He hit it like a freight train. The Elite staggered back, roaring. Andrew jumps up and grabs the Elite's wrist. Somehow managing the strength the break it, along with his own hand, causing the Elite to drop the sword. Suddenly the Elite's armored hand slams into Andrew's gut. He could feel several things breaking and going wrong inside him.

Pulling himself together, he spun his foot under the Elite's foot causing it to fall on its side. Andrew thrust his metal boot into the Elite's side, each kick forcing it closer to the edge. He felt something give inside the Elite as he finally kicked it over the edge.

Erin finished off her Ammo supply. Then glanced back to Andrew's position to see how he was doing. She couldn't see him; all she saw was Solomon's headless body, the two halves of a Marine, A LOT of blood, and a few fires. She dropped her rifle and ran back into the elevator, hit ground, readied her SMG and waited.

"MEDIC!" Andrew screamed while coughing up blood and clutching at his stomach. Plasma bolts and Bullets raced past him as he carelessly walked out into the Battle.

Erin blasted her way through a cluster of Grunts surrounding Andrew's last known Position. Nothing, wait. She looked through all the helmets on the ground. She picked one up, 'WOOD' was printed on the back, its Andrew's. She hears something in the distance. It's Andrew. He's barely able to stand, he is unarmed, his breastplate it cracked down the middle, making it just a weak piece of metal, and his helmet is in Erin's hands.

A loud mechanical roaring. The sky turns red for a few seconds, and six, SIX Light Battle Cruiser jump through the clouds.

"MARINES! PULL BACK, THEIR PURGING IT!" the voice echoes throughout the headsets of all the Marines.

The Battlecruisers will wait as long as they can, then, their blasting this place.

Erin dropped her SMG, buckled her helmet to make sure it didn't fall off, and ran as fast as she could towards Andrew, his helmet in hand.

"ANDREW WE GOTTA LEAVE NOW THIER GOING TO TORCH THIS PLACE!" Erin yelled over the roaring engines above. She gave Andrew his helmet. He put it on and bucked it with his one good hand. She placed her arm around him to guide him towards the drop ships, his back felt like mush, something really beat him up. Couldn't have been a Hunter, he would be in pieces. Of course, this is Andrew Wood, not a normal Marine.

The drop ship's rear gunner trained his turret on the two Marine's running towards the ship, he might have to fire past them if there were any Covenant threatening them or the ship. They got close enough, he started firing on the remaining Covvies, wow. More Wraith tanks and Ghosts we're appearing on the roof of the building. The Covenant didn't know what was about to happen?

The two Marines jumped onto the Drop Ship. It was now at full capacity, there were a lot of wounded Marine's on it. The infirmary at the base couldn't help them much so the Drop Ship pilot was instructed to take them to a hospital, Toronto Western. The Battle Cruisers began charging their weapons.

"We're off!" The pilot exclaimed over the intercom.

It was a hot day again. The air rippled above the concrete. Dropships and Longsword bombers flew around the skies of Toronto. It would take a while to recover from the Battle, but they won. It cost a lot but they won. A black Car drove down the street, this neighborhood seemed quite well to do, of coarse, it was a suburb. A nice clean suburb. Being here you wouldn't have even known the Battle had taken place in Toronto's core, but it was all over the news, and there was just no way not to know.

The car stopped outside a cookie cutter house. Flags that read 'support our troops', and United Nations Space Command waved outside of it in the breeze. Erin Bryant opened the door of the car. She glanced at her shoulder in the side mirror, the two silver bars looked out of place, 'Captain'. A high rank didn't suit her. Not in her mind. She pulled on her white gloves and grabbed the brown envelope on the seat beside her. She didn't want to do this, but she didn't want anyone else to do it. Erin cursed the Covenant for ever existing.

"Fuck" she said under her breath as she closed the car door. Now she knew why Andrew hated doing this. She jogged up to the house with her hat under her right arm, left if you were looking at her from the front, and walked up the three stairs that led to the bright yellow door. She knocks three times.

A man came to the door. Seeing she was from the UNSC he called his wife over.

Erin knew what to say, but she was instructed to read it off the paper, because it's more formal, but she always though it was so that the Messenger didn't have to make eye contact with the people, and so that they had something to do with their hands.

"Sir and Madam, the United Nations Space Command regrets to inform you that your son, Andrew K. Wood, was killed in the line of duty, on an operation that was essential to winning the war."

Erin's voice cracked a bit during the delivery. She was forbidden to say anything else than words of comfort, or official things, like where the dead Soldier's uniform could be picked up.

Erin handed the mother the brown envelope.

"You worked with him" Andrew's mother said.

Erin nodded while looking away as she walked back to the car. She was going to drive back to base and demand a transfer from Major Redward.

**Thanks to everyone who read this story and who left a review! I honestly didn't think anyone would. But it turns out it's my most successful next to 'Rines. Which I never finished. I've grown quite fond of the Erin Bryant character, so expect to see her in future fan fictions. Now I'm off to work on my next FF, StarCraft: The Red Moon Insurgency.**

**-Will**


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